EMIRATES STADIUM — Liverpool do not, it seems, know when they are beaten. They were once 14 points behind Manchester City, now they are just one back. It wasn’t easy though, and Arsenal should take much heart from that.
It is seven years since Arsenal fans were present to see their team beat Liverpool in the Premier League. The players did manage it in July 2020, but the celebrations were held in locked-down living rooms around the UK and the world and it was the exception to the trend.
This fierce rivalry though has been rekindled by the resurgence of both sides. Liverpool are back where they believe they belong, challenging for titles in England and in Europe, while Arsenal are not the soft touch they had become in the late Wenger years.
They have yet to end their own league title drought which is not as long as Liverpool’s was but it is 18 years long. They do at least look certain to be back in the Champions League next season and on the evidence of this, one of the most seismic Premier League showdowns at the Emirates since they last challenged for the title, they deserve their plane tickets.
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- Ramsdale – 6.5
- Cedric – 5.5
- White – 6
- Gabriel – 5.5
- Tierney – 7
- Partey – 7
- Xhaka – 6
- Saka (off 74) – 6.5
- Odegaard (off 67) – 7
- Martinelli – 8.5
- Lacazette (off 81) – 5.5
Substitutes
- Smith-Rowe (67, for Odegaard) – 6
- Pepe (74, for Saka) – 6
- Nketiah (81, for Lacazette) – 6
Liverpool
- Alisson – 7
- Alexander-Arnold – 5
- Matip – 6
- Van Dijk – 7.5
- Robertson – 7
- Fabinho – 6.5
- Henderson – 7
- Thiago – 6.5
- Mane – 6.5
- Diaz – 6
- Jota – 7.5
Substitutes
- Salah (56, for Jota) – 6.5
- Firmino (56, for Diaz) – 7
- Jones (90, for Thiago) – n/a
And in the driving rain and with referee Andre Marriner apparently willing to let plenty of challenges go (much to the chagrin of a typically animated Jurgen Klopp), this was a throwback match in so many ways, not least because it turned in a 10-minute period that could have come straight out of the 1998 classic “Sliding Doors” as two Thiago passes, one into each box, defined the match.
The first was aimed at his own goalkeeper Alisson Becker but ended up at the feet of Alexandre Lacazette, who turned away from the goalkeeper and squared it to Martin Odegaard, who was miraculously denied by the scrambling Brazilian.
Just four minutes later, Thiago played another pass that maybe only he could have seen, taking five Arsenal players out of the game and putting Diogo Jota through on goal. Aaron Ramsdale maybe should have done better at the near post, but it was typical of the Portuguese forward, who had not scored in seven games, that he had found a goal out of nowhere that his team dearly needed after 53 goalless minutes that Manchester City must have enjoyed.
Liverpool had started the game on the front foot. The Gunners played mostly on the counter-attack through Bukayo Saka on the right hand side as the England winger exploited the space in behind the often-marauding Andy Robertson.
In fact though it was the actions of Gabriel Martinelli, a constant thorn in Liverpool’s side, that forced Alisson to make his first meaningful intervention after he wriggled past a tormented Trent Alexander-Arnold.
Martinelli and Saka were certainly Arsenal’s main outlets, while Alexandre Lacazette’s predominant role was as chief interrogator of Marriner on the occasions that he did choose to stop play.
Arsenal had gone toe-to-toe with Liverpool in the first 45 minutes, but the half was topped and tailed by the two chances for the away side that were the two best: Ramsdale was good enough to palm away Virgil van Dijk’s header early on but probably would have had been unable to make a similar play if Sadio Mane had not been just about put off enough by Gabriel: Alexander-Arnold’s pass over the top had unlocked the defence in a way Manchester City’s chief title challengers had struggled to do in the previous 44 minutes.
It was a sucker-punch then when Jota scored, and one that would have downed previous Arsenal sides. Lacazette roused the crowd and they genuinely believed, flexing their vocal muscles in response. Liverpool though flexed their tactical ones, introducing Mo Salah and Roberto Firmino off the bench with goalscorer Jota making way, and seven minutes later it was the Brazilian striker that doubled the lead.
This Liverpool side is full of champions on the pitch and on the bench. Arsenal knew they were beaten. Having been 14 points behind Man City in the title race, their opponents might once have thought they were too. But they were not. And now the gap is only one.
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